Bacoor

Bacoor is a suburban city in Cavite. It is a large, overwhelmingly sprawling community south of Manila, and the gateway to the province from the north.

Understand
Bacoor is large and sprawling, due to the fast pace of suburbanization that turned this quiet fishing and farming municipality into one of the most populous cities in Cavite. It just lies south of Metro Manila, and its suburban character can be seen from aircraft taking off or landing at Ninoy Aquino International Airport from the west.

Little is known about Bacoor's history, but it has some bits of history. Mariano Gomez, one of the Filipino secular priests collectively called the Gomburza, served Bacoor's old parish church for 48 years until he was arrested and executed along with Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora at the garrote for alleged involvement in the Cavite Mutiny. Bacoor is one of the first towns to rebel against Spanish rule at the beginning of the Philippine Revolution, and the turning point of the rebellion, the Battle of Zapote Bridge, happened in 1897 near the boundary with the Spanish-era province of Manila, but within the year, the town and Cavite province fell back to the Spaniards. A heritage home, the Cuenca Residence, was a site for meetings by the Filipino revolutionary group Katipunan.

The old town center (poblacion), which has the old Catholic church and town hall, lies to the coast, but most activity is nowadays concentrated around Zapote-Talaba (the intersections of Aguinaldo Hwy, Aguinaldo Blvd and Bacoor Blvd), Panapaan (at the junction of Aguinaldo and Tirona) and Molino (at the junction of Molino Rd and Daang Hari). Bacoor suffers from car-dependent urban sprawl that also affects much of Cavite.

Local information

 * Bacoor municipal government website

Get in
Bacoor is about 15 minutes from Manila or the airport.

By bus
There are many buses plying Aguinaldo Highway, the city's main street. The city has designated stops for all buses through the city, but the most useful of them is the stop near SM City Bacoor, at the junction of Aguinaldo and Tirona highways. All buses use the Manila-Cavite Expressway to and from Manila.

From the coastal towns, there are minibuses ("baby buses") to Bacoor; their terminal is just outside SM City Bacoor.

Some Cavite Bus Local Provincially Officials from General Mariano Alvares Cavite daily route trips in Paliparan Molino Road and Molino Boulevard Bacoor via PITX North-Southbound.

By car
From Manila, the main entry point by car is the toll Manila-Cavite Expressway (CAVITEX, or formerly but still called Coastal Road), with an exit at barangay Longos. Other entry points from Metro Manila are:
 * Quirino Avenue (from Las Piñas), which intersects with the congested Alabang-Zapote Road and crosses into Bacoor on the historic Zapote Bridge.
 * Daang Hari, an east-west multilane road which starts at Ayala Alabang in Muntinlupa and ends at Imus. The toll Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway connects Daang Hari with the South Luzon Expressway at Muntinlupa.

Aguinaldo Highway (Route 62 from Zapote Bridge to Tirona Highway; Route 419 afterwards), Cavite's most important and perennially snarled highway, traverses Bacoor north to south.

Bacoor implements an ordinance restricting road travel by license plate number ("number coding"), and the Cavite governments also has a province-wide travel restriction, both during weekdays (except national holidays).

Transportation Commuters:


 * Traditional Jeepney and UV Express.

Get around
Bacoor is well served by the common modes of transport, the jeepney and th tricycle, but its car-reliant sprawl from the developments in the 1990s also gave its negative reputation on traffic jams. If you drive, always prepare for rush hour traffic and clogged roads.

By jeepney
Bacoor is well served by jeepney routes, and they ply all the major roads through town. Fares start at for the first 4 kilometers, and  are added for each additional kilometer. But remember that the city has since restricted loading and unloading of jeepneys to a few designated stops, so you cannot just hail a jeepney just anywhere or ask the driver to drop you outside the designated stop.

You might also take a multicab between SM City Bacoor ang SM City Molino, but remember, space inside the vehicle is small (there is limited head room and leg room) and it can carry just the half a jeepney can carry, so expect the ride to be crowded.

By car
Travel by car is far the worst way to get around town. While the malls are best accessed by car, parking rates can be burdensome, and parking space becomes limited during weekend sales. Traffic in Bacoor is nerve-racking, and unless you are used to Filipino driving behavior (or similar behaviors in other countries), it remains best to take the available public transport options when getting around.

Go next
Next to Bacoor is Kawit, where the Philippines' declaration of independence is signed in 1898.

Other nearby places are:
 * Imus - Another sprawling city, and the de jure capital of Cavite (but there are no provincial government offices there). One of the major battles of the Philippine Revolution, the Battle of Alapan, happened here.
 * Dasmariñas — A city of over 660,000, it is a fast-growing economic center, with malls and universities.